Told Agent to Stuff It

A reader got a contract and then told agent to stuff it.

This appeared as comments after one of our articles.

Same Experience

I had the exact same experience with an agent.

First of all, he was very doubtful about my ability to do the job even though I had years of experience, so he had to interview me personally and he constantly stressed that I would be given a technical test at the client interview.

Wonderful Interview

Turned out I had a wonderful interview experience with the client, they had confidence I can do the job and never mentioned giving a technical test and they were already thinking about the additional tasks they could ask me to do.

I walked away with a job offer in my pocket.

When I got home my agent kept beating the bush to find out if I actually wanted the job with the low rate they had initially told me.

He kept pushing me to accept the lower rate and I was given a next day decision time frame.

Declined His Offer

Although the contract was pretty good, I decided to decline the offer mainly because I hated the way I was treated by this pushy and mean-talking agent and I wasn’t going to make his life so easy.

I emailed him the next day and told him I had accepted another job offer and asked him not to consider me available any more.

I know I’m pretty marketable so I don’t regret what I did to myself when I told agent to stuff it.

Like this:

Crazy Reason

Crazy Reason for Agency Not Putting Me Forward was posted as Comments by a reader.

Contract Role

I once applied for an IT Contract role during the downturn, with the junior agent protecting her senior counterpart from me.

Finally she told me sheepishly that I probably didn’t make their shortlist because the client might be worried that I had been out of work for 4 months!

No credit for the full employment over the previous 10 years, or that my last contract in a highly relevant role had been for 3.5 years.

I was on the scrap heap because I hadn’t found a job in 4 months

Only Relevant Roles

Certainly wasn’t down to me not trying, I only applied for those roles that I truly believed I should be in with a shout of, so as to not waste agents’ time, but still I had a wodge of double-sided paper an inch thick for those jobs.

Total sum was that maybe 10 of those I was put forward for – who the hell were ALL these people allegedly so much more experienced.

Even when put forward, half of the agents still wouldn’t return my calls to ask progress.